Railroad Tycoon 3
December 28, 2003
Do you miss the days of setting up model railroads in the basement, garage or anywhere you got open space? Do you miss the days of just sitting around relaxing as the trains run their course at whatever pace you decide? Well, miss it no more; Railroad Tycoon 3 is here to solve that problem. Read more
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
December 28, 2003
2001 was a very good time for action games. In case you have already forgotten, 2001 was the year Rockstar brought gamers Max Payne. Playing through the perspective of Payne, players had to avenge the death of his wife and kid. The game also introduced the often immitated slowdown mode, Bullet Time. After a couple of years of waiting, Rockstar and the same development team behind the first game, Remedy, are back at it again in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Read more
Spawn Armageddon
December 28, 2003
Spawn hasn’t had the luxury of having a good game. After taking over the comic industry, action figures, and trying to take over Hollywood, the only two Spawn games ever developed have been plagued by several shortcomings. However, we haven’t seen a Spawn game since the DreamCast days and Namco now tries their hands and correcting the mistakes of the past. We saw a really early build of Spawn during E3 and it was looking nice. However, the game wasn’t any more than a single room to showcase a little bit of the action. Does this Namco lead project succeed? Read more
Manhunt
December 28, 2003
Rockstar is back with their most violent game yet. No, this is not a new version of Grand Theft Auto but Manhunt. In this game, you control James Earl Cash, a deathrow inmate who is put to eath by lethal injection at the beginning of the game. The game starts out with this disturbing scene and by the time it is over, you will no long be concerned about violence in videogames. After Manhunt, no amount of violence will disturb you. Unfortunately, this is a little bit too much for me and I did not enjoy Manhunt. Read more
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
December 22, 2003
From the packaging, to the graphic novels, to the game environments, Max Payne 2 is an incredibly stylish game. Like the first Max Payne, this sequel offers up a gritty, violent, and dramatic story of a detective on his own, with nothing to lose. The first game in the first game, Max Payne was wrongfully accused of murder, and it was up to him to get to the bottom of things. With his family gone, he felt like he had nothing to lose. Although that theme is terribly clich?©, developer Remedy presented the plot and the game in such a way as to make it really engrossing. To mimic the style of an old pulp detective novel, the game featured over-the-top dialogue that bordered on ridiculous. However, Remedy showed that they weren’t taking themselves too seriously with a couple sequences of self-mockery. I thought the way the story was presented was quite enjoyable. There is even more humor in Max Payne 2. Don’t worry; it doesn’t make the game silly. It makes it more enjoyable, in fact, by breaking up the incredibly intense action and drama with bits of humor. It sets a better pace for the game. Read more
Space Colony
December 10, 2003
When I was told my next review assignment was Space Colony, I have to admit, I was sort of excited. Firefly has also put out one of my favorite games of the year in Stronghold, and initial looks at this game sent little thoughts of the Sims, Startopia, and a Mr. Show sketch gone horribly awry dancing in my head. Not to mention that it’s outer-space and robot content is through the roof. Read more
Bloodrayne
December 9, 2003
BloodRayne is a 3rd Person Action game set in the late 30′s-early 40′s. You are an agent of The Brimstone Society. An organization tasked with the seizure, control, and, if necessary, elimination of supernatural artifacts and beings(Naturally a job this sensitive and discreet requires you to wear skintight pants and a bustiere made of red velvet and black leather.). Soon you’re sent to find a relic the Nazis are looking for and all Hell breaks loose. Read more
NBA Inside Drive 2004
December 8, 2003
Still the newest to the sports genre, Microsoft and their Developer High Voltage Software fell flat on their face in last year’s NBA Inside Drive 2004. The game was hardly an upgrade to the prior version and I hated every second I had to play it. However, the developers went back to the drawing board and have released NBA Inside Drive 2004. While it isn’t perfect, it is a big upgrade from the 03 version. Read more
Counter-Strike
December 8, 2003
Counter-Strike is a mod that was created by a few college students for the extremely popular Half-Life. To this day, Counter-Strike remains very popular. For those of you not familiar with Counter-Strike, it is one of the first team based shooters. By being a free download for Half-Life, which has a huge user base, this title helped establish the team based shooter in the market place. In order to try and capitalize on the popularity of this online game, Microsoft has teamed up to bring the five year old mod to the Xbox. While the game is faithful to the original, Counter-Strike is beginning to show its age. Read more
Gladiator Sword of Vengeance
December 8, 2003
This year at E3, Acclaim was pushing two games. The first was Alias, based on the hit ABC TV. The second was Gladiator Sword of Vengeance. Gladiator is set in Ancient Rome in a time where the empire is in turmoil and all of the gladiators are going to die a bloody death entertaining the masses. You play Invictus Thrax, a Roman who was born into slavery and later became the greatest gladiator in the history of Rome. Despite a few problems, Gladiator Sword of Vengeance is a solid action title. Read more